Reston, VA – December 16, 2013 – The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a leading authority on the use of Health IT to improve healthcare information exchange, today released their findings from the October 2013 WEDI ICD-10 Readiness Survey. When compared to a similar WEDI survey given in February 2013, the healthcare industry has slipped further behind key ICD-10 compliance milestones suggested in the WEDI/NCHICA timeline.

Survey responses indicate that about 80% of healthcare providers will not complete their business changes and begin testing before 2014. Over 20% of vendor respondents indicated that they were half-way or less than half-way complete with product development in support of ICD-10 and 40 % indicated they would not have products available to customers until 2014. About 40% of health plan respondents had not fully completed their impact assessment.

“Based on the survey results, all industry segments appear to have made some progress since February 2013, but have not gained sufficient ground to remove concern over meeting the October 1, 2014 compliance deadline.” said Jim Daley, Chairman, WEDI. “Unless all segments move quickly forward with their implementation efforts, there will be significant disruption on Oct 1, 2014.”

About WEDI
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of Health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards bodies.